Max Verstappen was left baffled after taking the sprint race pole position at the Miami Grand Prix on Friday, questioning how his rivals didn’t beat his ‘terrible’ final lap.

The Dutchman was piecing together a strong lap but endured a messy start to sector three, experiencing a major snap while navigating the awkward chicane at Turns 14 and 15, costing him plenty of time.

However, with his closest rivals also struggling, this was enough to claim the P1 spot on the grid for Saturday’s sprint. Lando Norris had been the frontrunner throughout the first two sprint qualifying sessions but had a miserable opening sector on his final run.

His McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was also struggling with the balance of his car throughout SQ3, while Carlos Sainz’s lap was thrown off after a costly sector two lock-up.

When race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase informed the Dutchman that he was on pole, Verstappen expressed his shock, replying: “LOL. What happened to the others? This was terrible. I mean I will take it!”

This finish sets the Red Bull driver up for a battle against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc when the lights go out on Saturday, while team-mate Sergio Perez will be following closely behind in P3.

The standout performer in sprint qualifying though was Daniel Ricciardo, who recovered from his miserable weekend in Shanghai by placing his vibrant VCARB car on the second row of the grid.

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